Corpus Christi Caller Times Caller.com - IceRays shocker: Robertson quits team

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Monday, December 13, 1999

IceRays shocker: Robertson quits team
Hall: We pay him very well to be a player, not a coach
By Mark Button
Caller-Times

Chris Robertson has quit the Corpus Christi IceRays.
   He is not talking publicly and he has no given indication as to why he left the team.
   After spending the first nine weeks of the season on the injured-reserve list with a partially torn ligament in his right knee, Robertson was scheduled to come off the IR Sunday, in time for the IceRays' 7:05 p.m. at Waco.
   Instead, Robertson addressed coach Taylor Hall and the Corpus Christi players minutes before the team bus left for Waco Saturday night and told them he would not return to the team.
   "He got on the bus and announced to his teammates and myself that not only was he not coming on the road and going on this trip, that he no longer could ever play for the Corpus Christi IceRays again," Hall said Sunday in a radio interview on KCCG 107.3-FM. "It was a very weak way of making an announcement. Chris has known for a week now that he was going to be in the lineup; he gave me no indication at all and gave me no time to replace him."
   Last season's Western Professional Hockey League Most Valuable Player, Robertson partially tore the medial collateral ligament in his right knee during the first period of the IceRays' opening night, 8-2 loss to Austin.
   Robertson declined comment and Hall did not say why Robertson left the team.
   "He was very vague about everything," Hall said. According to the interview, the relationship between player and coach had been souring since Robertson re-signed to play for Corpus Christi on June 24. "This year, Chris and I haven't agreed on certain things," Hall said. "He has questioned a few of the decisions I've made and when we asked Chris to come back and sign contract for this year, we paid him very well to be hockey player, not to be a hockey coach."
   Left with no alternative, Hall suspended Robertson without pay, securing Robertson's rights in the WPHL.
   "We've honored his contract all the way through and have paid him right up to date," Hall said. "And to not to give us any warning and tell us he can't play, I find it very disappointing.
   "We wish Chris the best with whatever he decides to do, if he continues to play hockey or if we end of trading him to another team. But we've got some hockey games to win. Chris didn't want to help us win hockey games, then we need to find players that will."
   IceRays forward Kurt Wickenheiser, also interviewed on KCCG, said he was disappointed with Robertson's decision.
   "I was very shocked, I think everyone was," Wickenheiser said. "But that was Chris Robertson's decision, and he'll have to live with it. We're going to stick together as a team and players that don't want to be around the team don't deserve to be here. But we have 17 guys that want to be here and we're going to go out and do very well." Robertson recorded 109 points (42 goals, 67 assists) led the IceRays to the quarterfinals round of the 1998-99 WPHL playoffs, where Corpus Christi lost to Lake Charles, three game to one.
   Staff writer Mark Button can be reached at 886-3613 or by e-mail at button@caller.com

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